The grammar-translation method is an academic approach to language learning that has been central to language teaching throughout the ages and is still valid today. Generally, the grammar-translation method requires learners to translate written passages (usually word for word) based on consciously memorized grammatical rules and vocabulary lists. Most conventional methods of learning foreign languages, in spite of sometimes new names and some cosmetic changes, still are founded on the main characteristics of grammar-translation approach and are inefficient.
Foreign-language learning is very different from other kinds of learning. The habits and methods used to learn math, science, or history typically do not apply to learning foreign languages. Most conventional foreign language learners consciously studied the mechanics of their new language as though the language were a car. They cut up the new language with their mind and then studied the parts word by word, rule by rule. Yet, learning words or phrases by constantly mentally translating into a native language creates extra steps in a person's brain during simple communication that are not performed when a native language is spoken.
Learning from vocabulary lists or flashcards may encourage learners to exclusively use one-to-one translation. When learning a foreign-language word by translating into the native language, the foreign word and the native word are bound together in the learner's mind as a pair, creating an illusion that the learner will be able to speak fluently by taking separate words and sticking them together. But this idea is contrary to the mechanism of speech in a person's native language and in any other language for which a learner has acquired true fluency. Namely, speech involves expressing thoughts automatically by using collocations and word patterns that our brain is trained to produce without pausing to think or remember.
Learning grammar in one language and attempting to apply it in another also is disadvantageous, because bilingual information is stored in a memory for a limited time. Most of this type of information is erased from the mind after about 30 days, especially if it was not used in this period. Many post-graduate students who came to English-speaking countries to continue their education, even after passing intensive exams such as TOEFL or TOEIC, have complained of still being unable to express thoughts, to understand spoken language, or to follow vocational or academic lectures in the new language.
In view of the above background, there remain ongoing needs for systems and methods for teaching and learning foreign languages that allow adult learners to overcome the brain resistance to a second language on a subconscious level by silencing the mother tongue and eliminating subconscious cross-translation to and from the mother tongue.